The Russellville Finance Committee met Tuesday to discuss funding options for street improvements along North El Paso Avenue. The project will ultimately be paid for with kickback funds received from the city’s portion of a statewide half-cent sales tax that was approved by voters last fall and will go into effect July 1. Instead of waiting the years it would take to receive enough collections to pay for the $3 million project, city leaders have proposed financing the project via a 5-year loan with a 1.7 percent interest rate.

“The other way to do it is to wait five years for that money to come in and we can pay cash,” Alderman Randy Horton said. “Your cost of construction can increase way more than that.”

The loan would finance $2.5 million of the project cost, and the other $500,000 would come from the Public Works Department’s reserve funds.

North El Paso will become a “complete street” once improvements are made, which means it will accommodate various modes of transportation — vehicle, walking and bicycling — in addition to being aesthetically pleasing. The design includes travel lanes, bicycle lanes, trees, sidewalks and period lighting.

Robert McCready, coordinator for the Russellville River Valley Tea Party, questioned the benefit to the city of such a project.

Alderman Martin Irwin said the project would “create a more positive view of Russellville” and that infrastructure improvements as a whole tend to foster economic development.

Alderman Spence Roberts, who owns a downtown business, said downtown businesses are largely in favor of the project. Public Works Director Michael Oakes said he would like to go ahead and bid the project with the caveat that if financing is not approved, then all bids would be rejected.

The full council will vote on the funding at its May meeting. Oakes said, if approved, construction could begin within days of receiving approval of the financing proposal.

Also on Tuesday, the committee discussed a proposed project for a detention basin at the southern end of South Waco Avenue. The basin would stretch over an area of 11.2 acres and cost an estimated $450,000-$500,000 to build. The project would include the creation of a park area as part of the basin, allowing recreational use most of the year.